On moral compass grounds, no, I don't think Ennesby is the best choice for deciding the best course of action for Chinook. However, it looks like the Oafa consider Ennesby to be the closest thing to family Chinook has. Whether you believe that to be the most appropriate grounds for choosing him, I don't know, but it does make sense to me.

You know, a better question is why hasn't Ein-afa been razed by a dozen or more long gun shots from Chinook? She obviously sees them as an enemy and it's full of more enemy long guns that are continually being powered up and launching.

You know, a better question is why hasn't Ein-afa been razed by a dozen or more long gun shots from Chinook? She obviously sees them as an enemy and it's full of more enemy long guns that are continually being powered up and launching.

When last Chinook explained her reasoning, her goal was to destroy all OTHER Long Guns in the Galaxy, in order to best protect her friends, or prevent herself from feeling the grief of losing more friends to long-gun fire.

Most of the people she still considers living friends are IN Eina-Afa. and presumably, the vast majority of the Ancient Oafan fleet launched in rapid order, all at once, under the command of their returning AI's and Computer Ghosts.

If that rapid launch occurred just after Chinook had lost control of Eina-Afa, she may have been too blinded to accurately target individual ships. Or maybe she DID target individual ships, but could only destroy a thousand targets or so before needing to refuel.

Targeting Eina-Afa itself wouldn't really help. A shielded ship in the hollow central axis is probably the safest place to be, if Eina-Afa's superstucture starts ripping itself apart, and if Eina-Afa drops TAD, most of those ships can probably jump to safety before shrapnel becomes a problem anyway. Killing Eina-Afa mostly just harms the biosphere inside, and the biosphere isn't the problem.

Ennesby has never struck me to be one overly concerned with morality, and so I'm sure that the Oafa could have found someone with a more refined sense of morality than him.

there's a difference between "moral authority" and "Morality"

a "Moral" person is one who has a clearly defined set of morals, and who sticks to those morals even when it is arguably to their own disadvantage. This hypothetical moral person probably shares most or all of his 'moral code' with a similar group of like-minded people, and most of his moral decisions can probably be predicted accurately by anyone who is familiar with a close variation of his specific moral code, whether or not the observer abides by that particular code or not.

But "Moral" persons can only really provide "moral advice", and only to people who either follow the same basic code, or to people who have an unusual level of respect for that specific person's advice.

"Moral Authority" basically means "the right to make binding moral decisions on behalf of other people." Moral Authority comes from the knowledge that certain people are required to obey you, have delegated decisions to you, or are otherwise stuck with the decisions you make

We grant Moral Authority to family members of patients who are insane or incomunicado, on the theory that as a family member, they are the most likely persons to understand the patient's pre-existing moral code, successfully predict what moral decisions the patient would likely make if they were able to, and to prioritize the patient's own best interests over competing matters, such as convenience.

We also grant Moral Authority to Judges and Juries, on the theory that SOMEONE has to make final decisions on behalf of the State. And we grant Moral Authority to Military Officers and Police, on the theory that they're the closest duly-appointed persons available, and have a clear chain of command over subordinates or civilians.

As a "family member" with a long baseline of experience with chinook, who has shared the same hardware, and who is certified as an attorney who will place a client's interests ahead of his own, Ennesby is a good candidate to have moral authority over Insane-Chinook's medical care.

Icebox-Chinook would probably be better, but she's not available right now.